A Demon’s Book Of Shadows (Witches & Demons #1)

1. Lucy

1

Lucy

October 30 th

A chill worked its way up my neck, cramping the base of my skull. I’d been experiencing waves of this strange energy ever since I entered the library this afternoon. Then again, I usually felt the presence of spirits more often as we approached Halloween.

I rolled my book cart toward the stacks. Working at the public library had long been my therapy. Books housed worlds that we could escape into. After the emotional turmoil that I’d been through over the past month, I would do anything to escape my personal life.

After I parked the cart by the juvenile readers, I settled in for my favorite librarian duties—shelving. Words became friends, and enemies. Some words triggered not so distant memories.

Junie B. Jones, Cheater Pants easily brought me back to life only a month ago. Memories of Jason cheating on me still festered. The wounds were still bone-deep, threatening to burn holes in my magic.

I stood by the choice I made a month ago—no other man would witness my magical talents .

My sisters did their part in helping me put my disaster of a dating life behind me. They'd gone and conjured up spells and all kinds of hexes I was sure, so that I wouldn't bump into my ex.

I worked my fingers into my favorite genre of books—fantasy. The red spine of a book with a shimmering foil title caught my eye. I grabbed the book, reading over the title. The Devil’s Desire: A Witchy Erotica Novel

Whoops . Definitely not reading material that was appropriate for children. I flipped through the pages, catching phrases like, “ The towering wall of dark muscle pins me against the wall ,” and, “ His cock feels like ribbed silk against my —”

I closed the book. I was no virgin, but there were absolutely some sexual fantasies I had yet to explore. In the twenty-seven years I’d been on this earth, I was likely only to find them in one of my sister’s smutty romance novels.

I set the scandalous title on my book cart, returning to the shelf. One day, I’d find some hot guy found in paranormal romance books, minus the vampires. I was more of a demon girlie, anyway. Their horns were wickedly sexy. Bat wings had never been my thing, although feathers weren’t all out. The book market was flooded with dark romance about fae and vampires, which I wasn’t infatuated with like every other twenty-seven year old female was.

My phone chimed. I retrieved it from my purple cardigan pocket and jabbed my thumb onto the screen.

Alyssa texted me.

OMFG. Have you gotten to chapter 55 in ACOMAF?! ?

No. I had not been enchanted with another spicy fantasy romance novel, which was all the new fad in the bookish world. As much as I would like to be whisked away from my Midwestern town at times, becoming trapped in a fae kingdom was not one of my fantasies.

I wedged my fingers into the spine of a children’s title. The pages were grimy with fingerprints, a few ripped pages, and oh look—a drawing. The chalky scent of ink on paper that had started to yellow dictated this book was old, probably published well before the library in the quiet Midwestern town of Midhaven was built.

A ripped piece of paper with a drawing stuck out from the pages. I tugged out the drawing. The paper was thick with the waxy texture of crayon. An image of a woman with glasses appeared alongside a ghost—a shadow I’d seen drifting in and out of the stacks every evening.

I knew these doodles were made by the demon who had an unusual artistic streak. This shadowy figure had been the bane of my existence for the past week.

My shoulders tensed. This was probably the twentieth book I’d seen him completely vandalize. I set the stack of books aside, finding a fallen leaf. It was autumn, and Grace’s dragon tree sitting atop the bookshelf was losing its foliage at an alarming rate. My youngest sister had recently convinced me of rehousing one of her plants in my work environment. Who wouldn’t want a Dr. Seuss tree decorating the children’s department?

A crunching noise sounded from the bookshelf. I pressed my ear to one of the books. The munching sound of a certain creature echoed against my eardrums. This creature loved books as much as I did, however, he could devour an entire shelf of them in an instant.

I grabbed the book and flipped it over so the pages opened toward the floor. The munching continued. I gave the book a shake, peeling it open to remove the dust jacket from the binding. A tiny pin-prick of a hole was present along the book’s spine.

“Grubs, I know you are in there,” I said, lowering my voice to the tone I knew he couldn't ignore.

The munching stopped. It took all of my strength not to fling the book across the room, forcing him out of his camouflage spell. Familiars possessed a magic all of their own, mostly allowing them to hide when they felt threatened.

“ You are lying . You can’t see, or hear me ,” his grubby little thoughts came inching their way into my mind. He began his happy-go-lucky tune, which he often sang to himself as he ate holes in my books.

“ Gimme dem grubs . Gimme dem grubs . Eat them up , until they’re nothing but nubs .”

I pressed my ear to the furthest book on the shelf I assumed he was hiding in.

“ Ho hum , ho hum , don't ever think I’m dumb . I’ll eat you up and spit you out ho hum, and next I’ll bite your thumb .”

I’d located the bookworm I had since I was approximately five years old. Grubs loved to spend his afternoons tunneling through the stacks while I shelved books. He was my shelving assistant, often taking a bite out of each book as I tried to return them to their proper home.

“ Hey, books have flavor, didn't you know ?”

I shook my head. Good thing familiars had their own kind of reparative magic. Today, he was feeling rather destructive. I grabbed the book I was certain he was feasting on. He was no longer inside of it, having discarded his first snack and started somewhere on another one. “Apparently The Very Hungry Caterpillar wasn’t your thing today?”

“ You haven’t looked inside yet .”

I flipped the book over. “You tunneled through the spine? Are you kidding ?

“ I was hungry .”

“No shit you were hungry.” I flipped the book upside down, bending it at the spine. “Look at this. I can’t keep this on the shelf,” I sighed, setting the book my familiar had destroyed on the cart. It would be at least a day before his magic patched the holes and the book returned to its prior state. “You’ll have a gut full of binding glue before the day is over.”

“ At least I’m not eating all of the crap Jason did .”

Ever since I moved out of Jason’s apartment, my familiar’s appetite had gone haywire.

“ I knew Janky Jason was no good. The guy ate a thousand pounds of Italian food a day, and fed me leftover tortillas. How does that happen in the same meal? Who mixes Mexican with Italian ?”

“Somebody who doesn't know what they want,” I said, realizing why he was always ordering take-out from three different restaurants so he could satisfy his hook-ups. Note to self—never date a body-builder again, especially one who had his own secret Instagram account where half of his following was highly active in promoting pornography.

“ Don’t worry. I left something in his protein shake mix to make his dick shrivel. They call us inchworms, you know. By now he probably resembles me when he’s horny .”

The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Grubs wasn’t the only one accompanying me. There was another spirit that Grubs couldn’t keep away—the demon who had been watching me.

Heat branched through my fingers, curling the pages of the book I held. There was definitely a spirit of some kind shifting behind the shelves. A male spirit, I was sure. Female spirits didn’t have aromas of earth, asphalt, and minty citrus like his.

I reached out, feeling for his source. All I seemed to find was a coalescing mass of aura. I shouldn't feel this way, my magic flaring and heat rolling in my belly. Not after it had only been a month since Jason and I broke up. I shouldn't feel attracted to this coalescing creep who had no business haunting my library.

I am losing my fucking mind. Am I really getting turned on by a bunch of shadows ?

I continued shifting books to and from my cart, removing those I found that Grubs had snacked on. “Let’s see. A witch, a familiar, and a demon all hang out together at the local library. I wonder what kind of books we’ll find today?”

The shadows coalesced around me, forcing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand. “It depends on if you are discussing the book you’re hiding from me.” His voice was cool and silky, taking on a darker tone that I so wanted to get lost in. He was either a demon, or a poltergeist. I knew this, because he had yet to show me his eyes.

My shoulders stiffened at his reply.

Was he accusing me of hiding a book?

“Can you at least give me a hint on the subject matter of this so-called book I’m hiding from you?” I asked.

A grunt followed my question, the sound making the books on the shelf topple over. “Something you don’t believe in.”

I scoffed. He was talking about magic, again. “Something can still exist even if someone doesn’t believe in it.”

The shadows shifted closer to where I stood. “Hand the book over. Demons don't have time to play games.”

My stomach twisted. Demon . At least he’d admitted what he was.

“Wait just a minute,” I said, sliding up next to the pile of books I’d straightened, which were preparing to topple over again. “I am a librarian. Helping people—even spirits—find reading materials is what I specialize in, regardless of my beliefs. And I am sure as heck not hiding a book from you regarding magic.”

The demon hovered over me, his dark features concealed by a tendrilling black shadow. “My dear Lucy, I will find what I am looking for, no matter how much you want to keep it from me. I highly doubt that you can find use for a book about magic that you don’t believe in.”

My phone chimed. I grabbed it from my pocket. My oldest sister had texted me.

Lucy, come on. It’s Halloween Eve! Get your butt home now!

The demon dispersed, leaving me facing the bookshelves. Something pink oozed out of one of the books, which I grabbed. Try as I might, I wasn’t able to pry the pages open.

My skin heated as the pink substance stretched. My hair frizzled. The bones in my fingers vibrated as my magic flared.

Bubblegum ? Are you fucking kidding me ?

I slammed the book closed. If I found one more nasty piece of invasive material in the stacks, I was going to lose it. This Halloween wasn’t going to be like any other I’d allowed to pass in my twenty-seven years of existence.

I was going to exorcize this demon from the public library come Halloween.